The trial is the first in the country to offer people a more valuable reward than the original purchasing price of the plastic drinks bottle they recycle, as the 50% off voucher equates to a saving of around £27 when buying a Merlin attraction day pass.
Traditionally, a deposit return scheme (DRS) would see the public pay a deposit when they buy a drink in a single-use container – which they can then get back when the container is returned empty. There’s no suggestion, however, that this scheme would see customers paying a deposit on the product.
The partnership comes a year since Coca-Cola Great Britain and Coca-Cola European Partners launched its sustainable packaging strategy alongside a global goal to collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one they sell, by 2030, to help ensure a world without waste.
Leendert den Hollander, Vice President & General Manager at Coca-Cola European Partners, said: “We want to reward people for doing the right thing by recycling their bottles and hope to encourage some people who wouldn’t otherwise have done so. Through this exciting new trial with Merlin Entertainments we hope to remind people how valuable their empty plastic bottle is.
“All of our bottles can be recycled and we want to get as many of them back as possible so they can be turned into new bottles and not end up as litter.
“This is just one of the actions that we’re taking. We buy more recycled plastic in the UK than any other company and we are in the process of doubling the recycled plastic in all our bottles from 25% to 50% by 2020. We’re also running television campaigns encouraging people to recycle, putting clear recycling messages across all of our packs and we’re supportive of new interventions, such as deposit return schemes, to see if they improve recycling rates.”
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